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Vegas Deals with Online Poker
Previously fearing the “offshore” poker sites finally the bricks and mortar casinos of Las Vegas are falling in love with online poker.
Realising that online poker is part of their future and that US regulation is likely to ring fence US poker players now partnerships are the way forward.
Two recent partnership announcements between Vegas casinos and online poker rooms have marked a massive change of direction for Vegas. Previously the US land based casinos were trying to keep the established offshore online poker rooms out with talk of exclusions of non US companies for a blackout period while the US casinos caught up with their online operations … now they are signing partnership agreements with the very sites they were seeking to keep out should the US finally agree on some sort of legalized regulation framework for online poker.
So what the hell happened ?
First Caesars Entertainment, owner of the World Series of Poker, announced that it will partner with 888poker to expand its WSOP brand in the U.K. market. This signaled the start of US bricks and mortar casinos acknowledging their lack of online poker expertise.
Now PokerStars have announced a strategy partnership with Wynn Resorts to create pokerstarswynn.com and Full Tilt Poker subsequently announced they are to work with Station Casinos owners Fertitta Interactive with a more vague partnership deal.
PokerStarsWynn.com
PokerStars announced a strategic partnership with Wynn Resorts, their primary reasoning is to …
“work to secure the passage of federal legislation that will finally and conclusively define illegal internet gambling, provide law enforcement with the tools necessary to stop illegal internet gambling, protect consumers by establishing a robust regulatory environment for the safe operation of online poker by experienced operators, and establish a regime for the assessment and collection of taxes”.
further more they plan to jointly operate in the US …
“Upon passage of this legislation and acquisition of the appropriate license, the parties will jointly operate a regulated, US online poker site under PokerStarsWynn.com”.
Full Tilt Poker cut deal with Fertitta Brothers
The partnership with FullTilt seems more vague and aimed to co-operate on pushing for the US regulation to go through. However they have specifically said that the Station Casinos brand will NOT be used as part of this partnership so it would suggest some sort partnership for an additional online only brand.
What Does the Future Hold For US Poker ?
The interesting thing as far as I can see is PokerStars have joined the Wynn partnership because they have concluded that should a regulatory framework come to pass in the US allowing all states to play it is NOT likely to allow US players to play with non US players.
Therefore online poker rooms will need separate US sites in the same way they have to operate separate .fr French poker sites.
A US only senario makes a whole lot more sense of why the largest online poker site would see any benifit partnering with a US casino on a US facing project. PokerStars and the outside “offshore” sites dont ultimately have that much sway in the corridors of power in the US, however Steve Wynn and other land based casinos would.
Accepting this is the best case senario its better for all to sort out a deal that gets US poker regulated sooner rather than later.
I previously predicted that online poker rooms including PokerStars would buy into Las Vegas to gain an influence on US regulation and be able to get round the possible blackout period by becoming legitimate landbased casinos.
As things seem to be turning out the US landbased casino have realised they need the online poker rooms for their expertise and as the online poker sites are unlikely to be able to march into the US legitimately following regulation they figure its better to partner land based casinos on US only projects in order to bring the clock forward at a quicker pace.
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